There’s an obvious formula to Silent Witness, BBC One's long-running crime
series, but it just about still works, says Isabel Mohan

After 17 years, gory crime series Silent Witness (BBC One) has seen cast members come and go (it’s now almost a decade since Amanda Burton’s Professor Sam Ryan was replaced by Emilia Fox’s Dr Nikki Alexander as the pathologist at the centre of the action) but remains a solid hit when it comes to viewing figures. In the era of the boxset, there are plenty of trendier, more glamorous crime dramas to gorge on, but Silent Witness is beloved by viewers who prefer to consume their thrillers the old-fashioned way.

Last night, the 17th series began with a two-parter. As is the way with these things, what appeared initially to be a sequence of unrelated events turned out to be something very dark indeed – but, since this is a two-parter, we still don’t know quite what. It’s definitely dark, though, because that’s what Silent Witness is all about, much to the anger of some viewers who’ve complained in the past about its gruesomeness (note to the squeamish: avoid programmes about pathology labs and watch Peppa Pig instead).

First, a man arrived home from a business trip and, after inexplicably searching his house without turning any lights on (told you this thing is dark), found his wife and son dead in a bedroom in what initially appeared to be a murder-suicide, but probably wasn’t. Then, a sleazy premiership footballer whose anti-Islamic comments had caught him up in one of those pesky Twitterstorms was implicated in the murder of his former au pair, whom he happened to be sleeping with.

By the end of the episode, it was unclear where this was going – but thanks to some decent acting from Fox, along with Liz Carr (lab assistant Dr Clarissa Mullery) and particularly the charismatic David Caves (forensic expert Dr Jack Hodgson), the plot’s twists and turns were perfectly watchable and the cliffhanger was suitably suspenseful. There’s an obvious formula, but it just about still works.